# Elderly farmer in UK acquitted of shooting would be burglar **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 12, 2017, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elderly-farmer-in-uk-acquitted-of-shooting-would-be-burglar/781975 "2017-03-12T02:40:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elderly-farmer-in-uk-acquitted-of-shooting-would-be-burglar/781975/21 "2017-03-13T00:23:16Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > I don’t think this man would have been arrested in the most anti-gun jurisdictions of the United States. I’m relatively pro-gun but I could see this going to trial in the US. Based on the limited information in the articles it’s hard to tell how reasonable the justification for use of deadly force was. He engaged the side of a vehicle, that he was worried about running him over, after taking the gun out while concerned about a crime that by itself didn’t justify use of deadly force. Without digging way down into the details of actual statements made in the immediate aftermath I could easily see a prosecution decision going both ways. We certainly don’t have enough in the two links to completely erase the possibility the firing was unreasonable, in my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elderly-farmer-in-uk-acquitted-of-shooting-would-be-burglar/781975/22 "2017-03-13T21:43:59Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Is lamping/spotlighting actually legal? It is not in many US states, or only for certain species (AFAIK always illegal for deer, for example). [Lamping foxes is apparently legal in Northern Ireland](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-39121950), which isn’t necessarily an indication that it’s legal in the rest of the UK. Oddly enough [gun laws are less restrictive in NI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearms_policy_in_the_United_Kingdom#Northern_Ireland) than the rest of the UK. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elderly-farmer-in-uk-acquitted-of-shooting-would-be-burglar/781975/23 "2017-03-13T22:34:55Z")
And they have plenty of old men with great experience with guns since long before they transferred the rifles from the SS Fanny into the SS Mountjoy II which landed at Larne. _ **"216 Tons And What Have I Got ?"** _ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elderly-farmer-in-uk-acquitted-of-shooting-would-be-burglar/781975/24 "2017-03-15T19:10:27Z")
> [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](#): > > > [@Chimera](#): > > > > After years of reading about people in Britain being prosecuted for giving the slightest opposition to home invasions and burglaries, I’m glad to hear that a jury decided not to play their part in that game. All too often it is "well sure they were invading your home, stealing your things and assaulting you, **but when you struck back, you went too far!"** > > Any chance of a cite? Thought not. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elderly-farmer-in-uk-acquitted-of-shooting-would-be-burglar/781975/25 "2017-03-16T10:19:06Z")
If you have a firearm in the UK you are quite able to kill someone and not be convicted. There is a test of proportional force and reasonableness but certainly if, say, someone came at you with knife and you shot and killed them I can’t imagine any great outcry nor any real risk of jail time. Where the gun owner may be in bigger trouble is if the gun is unregistered or improperly stored. But seeing as these cases are vanishingly rare ( homicide by gun in the UK overall is only in the low tens each year) they make big noises and each case can be picked over and endlessly debated but I’m hard pushed to recall a case where I’ve thought a reasonable killing was punished by an unfair jail sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elderly-farmer-in-uk-acquitted-of-shooting-would-be-burglar/781975/26 "2017-03-16T23:51:16Z")
Lamping foxes (and rabbits) is legal (though no other types of game can be taken). Though most people would use night-vision or heat-indicating devices these days. The supposed burglar and his sidekick have a long history of convictions for burglary and theft. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elderly-farmer-in-uk-acquitted-of-shooting-would-be-burglar/781975.md?page=1)